1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of computer integrated telephony including data network telephony and other network-supported electronic communication, and pertains particularly to a system for integrating interaction management and business rules management tasks within a contact center environment.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
In the field of telecommunications and electronic messaging, development of interaction management and rules-based treatments for customers calling into a contact center or engaging in electronic interaction, such as email with a contact center, continues. A state-of-art contact center as known to the inventors may handle telephone interactions including data network telephony (DNT), and all forms of electronic messaging including email, instant messaging (IM), chat, short message service (SMS), and multimedia message service (MMS), as well as voice calls. Other interaction types such as Web servicing of interactive forms and applications including voice-based Web interactions are common and a state-of-art contact center is generally equipped to handle every type of communication.
It is important for a contact center to meet certain service objectives that are relevant to sales, efficiency, service rating, and so on. Therefore, a contact center management process is constantly seeking new and better ways to streamline processes and resource requirements like software, equipment and such to make the center more efficient, using less overhead. Interaction routing systems and equipment, workflow management systems and equipment, customer relations management systems and equipment, and rules management systems and equipment are typically a part of a contact center apparatus.
Many different types of interactions routinely occur between agents/automated systems and customers in a contact center. It is desirable to be able to optimize contact center workflow including interaction, routing, resource allocation, and other like tasks so that these processes are performed in a most efficient and cost productive manner. Therefore, contact centers typically rely on a set of rules or policies that govern the daily activities of the center, including how interaction is handled. One problem with traditional contact center management is that interaction management and business management are not well integrated in terms of overall workflow.
Current contact center applications contain sophisticated logic that is mainly implemented in the form of IVR scripts, routing strategies, agent scripts, and so on. It has occurred to the inventor that some contact center applications, especially applications that are closely tied to business policy, could rely on logic that is expressed in the form of business rules.
Therefore, what is clearly needed is a contact center architecture that provides enhanced integration of business rule management and interaction workflow management.